stand up comedy thesis

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First page of “Getting Serious with Comedy: Power, Stand-Up Comedy, and American Public Life”

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Getting Serious with Comedy: Power, Stand-Up Comedy, and American Public Life

2019, Getting Serious with Comedy: Power, Stand-Up Comedy, and American Public Life

This master’s thesis theorizes the political and cultural significance of stand-up comedy as an institution in the contemporary US public sphere, against the dominant perception that it is an enterprise severed from social consequence. Via a critical application of Ferguson’s theorization of power in The Reorder of Things (2012), in addition to a reading of stand-up comedy routines and related public discourse that utilizes feminist and queer of color theory, I show how subjective terrains of race, gender, and sexuality produce the discursive and political materials which organize stand-up discourse and performance in moments of “racial comedy,” “gender comedy,” and “sexual comedy.” I argue that this landscape of cultural production emerges from, but also partially constitutes, a general conflict (as well as many specific ones) between dominant and critical formations of race, gender, and sexuality. Further, I show that the historical and political viscosity between hegemonic and critical projects has deep implications for contemporary modalities of perspective-taking in, enjoyment of, and affect toward stand-up comedy. To support this argument, I examine dominant articulations of the social formations of racism and heteronormativity and posit their salience in contemporary iterations of stand-up comedy; and I theorize how a critique of those intersecting political domains—stand-up, racism, and heteronormativity—suggests a new space for and mode of critique and critical pedagogy. I conclude by discussing the emotional politics of doing critical scholarship as a hegemonic figure in the milieu of US cultural politics.

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Proquest, 2018

In 2014, Black feminist scholar bell hooks called for humor to be utilized as political weaponry in the current, post-1990s wave of intersectional activism at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her call continues to challenge current stand-up comics to acknowledge intersectionality, particularly the perspectives of women of color, and to encourage comics to actively intervene in unsettling the notion that our U.S. culture is “post-gendered” or “post-racial.” This dissertation examines ways in which comics are heeding bell hooks’s call to action, focusing on the work of stand-up artists who forge a bridge between comedy and political activism by performing intersectional perspectives that expand their work beyond the entertainment value of the stage. Though performers of color and white female performers have always been working to subvert the normalcy of white male-dominated, comic space simply by taking the stage, this dissertation focuses on comics who continue to embody and challenge the current wave of intersectional activism by pushing the socially constructed boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, class, and able-bodiedness. Utilizing performance analysis, gender theory, queer theory, critical race theory, and humor studies, this dissertation unpacks the ways that stand-up performers engage the comedic stage as their own form of public intellectualism and social critique in the #BlackLivesMatter era. This dissertation is driven by a central question: what performative strategies – defined throughout as ways in which comics structure the content, delivery, and space of their performances in specific ways that convey meaning – do stand-up comedians use to invite audiences to see them as intersectional subjects that live in the wholeness of their identities? Throughout the dissertation, I examine how comedians are using specific tactics of performance that reflect a fullness of identity as intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, and (dis)ability. The first chapter examines the work of specific performers to demonstrate ways in which stand-up comedians blend public intellectual work with social activism through their comedy to convey intersectional standpoints in the 21st century. The second chapter explores the work of Black female American stand-up comedians as a challenge to the ways in which the normative whiteness of fourth wave feminism fails to acknowledge the labor of women of color, despite its purported ethos to do so. Chapter three considers the work of performers examining gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability from a white positionality and critiques such work in terms of ways it does or does not engage with race and whiteness as a core component of intersectionality. The final chapter ponders how the use of humor, as a tool of intersectional activism, loses or gains efficacy when performed from transnational perspectives. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that 21st century stand-up answers hooks’s call, serving as a site to address and perform social justice activism by using humor as the connective tissue between these spaces of social discourse, comedy, and traditional street protest.

Routledge Books, 2022

What performative strategies do stand-up comics engage in when inviting audiences to consider them as subjects whose race is coded differently when performing in different countries? How do these performative strategies assist comics in translating their comic material across borders, wherein exists the inevitable, fluctuating demarcations and delineations of racial construction? The stand-up comics I explore in this chapter: Tehran Von Ghasri, Trevor Noah, Gina Yashere, and Aamer Rahman, are all comics whose work constitutes critical race humor as a "form of public pedagogy…[providing] people with the skills and habits of thought necessary to think critically about and transform racial knowledge and reality" (Rossing 16). The defiance of "dominant practices and ideologies that promote the erasure of material realities of race," through comic performance, coupled with a transnational self-awareness on the part of the performer, is the current which flows underneath the work of the comics discussed here (Rossing 17). A transnational origin for these comics is not merely embodied as an intersection of their own identities, but additionally, a matter of how they adapt their performative strategies in response to their racial legibility when moving across national borders. To borrow from Mary Louise Pratt, I define this space as a comedy contact zone (1991); a place in which the colonizers and the colonized meet, and within which the performer, a "conquered subject [uses] the conqueror's language to construct a parodic, oppositional representation of the conqueror's own speech" (Pratt 35). What becomes evident from analysis of these comics' performances is the reliance on their ability to create multiple vocal qualities, manifesting a parody of whiteness for audiences and affecting the "conqueror's language." These comics, performing from the U.S., Kuwait, Israel, UK, to Germany, UAE, Australia, etc., utilize a global awareness of the ways in which color, ethnicity, class, and nationality integrate to produce various readings of their bodies; their performative strategies then capitalize on the voice as a key instrument, capable of challenging these raced views of their identity. Book: Punching Up in Stand-Up Comedy Speaking Truth to Power Edited By Rashi Bhargava, Richa Chilana Copyright 2023 Punching Up in Stand-Up Comedy explores the new forms, voices and venues of stand-up comedy in different parts of the world and its potential role as a counterhegemonic tool for satire, commentary and expression of identity especially for the disempowered or marginalised. The title brings together essays and perspectives on stand-up and satire from different cultural and political contexts across the world which raise pertinent issues regarding its role in contemporary times, especially with the increased presence of OTT platforms and internet penetration that allows for easy access to this art form. It examines the theoretical understanding of the different aspects of the humour, aesthetics and politics of stand-up comedy, as well as the exploration of race, gender, politics and conflicts, urban culture and LGBTQ+ identities in countries such as Indonesia, Finland, France, Iran, Italy, Morocco, India and the USA. It also asks the question whether, along with contesting and destabilising existing discursive frameworks and identities, a stand-up comic can open up a space for envisaging a new social, cultural and political order? This book will appeal to people interested in performance studies, media, popular culture, digital culture, sociology, digital sociology and anthropology, and English literature. Chapter 9 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Funded by the University of Helsinki.

This critical discourse analysis examines white, female comedians’ stand-up material about the sexual encounter to illuminate how race, gender, and sexuality intersect to reproduce and subvert dominant discourses. The findings indicate that white, heterosexual comediennes reinforce discourses of the white female as the ideal victim of sexual assault and as sexual objects for male desire. Such discourses limit conversations about sexual violence and erase the realities of women of color. The study also describes how the comediennes subscribe to or challenge discourses of white, heterosexual females as disciplined objects of male desire and powerless victims of sexual assault. The results enhance existing conversations about white women, sexuality, intersectionality, and hegemonic discourses. Finally, this study articulates a need for white, straight, comedienne’s to be more reflexive about their privileged positions and incorporate those privileges in their standup material as a form of social activism.

The socio-cultural status of stand-up comedians allowed them to comment with impunity on sensitive social issues, giving them the ability to normalize and abnormalize certain societal behaviors and beliefs. This Foucaultian social tool attracted the use of many historically disenfranchised groups on the merits of sexuality and race. Feminists noted a gender discrepancy in pay and appearance in the hierarchy of this industry and attributed it to systemic flaws, not just with the industry but with humor’s theoretical and conceptual structures. The aim of this research work is to assess the impact of their ideological quest for a new theory of humor on the integrity of American stand-up comedy. The application of Peterson’s “Political Correctness Game” framework suggests that there are possible ulterior motives behind calls to change the foundational structure of American stand-up. The problem that this paper attempts to address is whether calls for inclusivity in the framework of inte...

Journal of Communication Inquiry, 2012

Postracialism pervades public discourse and positions race and racism as ancient history with little bearing on contemporary culture. This orientation impedes discourse on race in education, politics, media, and the workplace. As a consequence, postracialism thwarts the articulation of a successful politics of race and prevents movement toward racial justice. This essay identifies racial humor as an important site that might disrupt the impasse created by postracialism. Discussions of race have become labored in public discourse but humor has the capacity to counter the consequences of postracial ideologies. This essay considers the work of Stephen Colbert and his implicit critique of postracialism and Whiteness from the position of a White, male who ostensibly advocates postracialism. Although humor is always subject to varied interpretation, his political satire can be used to affirm progressive race-consciousness, reflect on the influence of racial constructions throughout history, expose White privilege, and refute reactionary White victim narratives.

Chappelle’s Show” is a sketch comedy series that ran from 2003-2004 and that was created by and starred comedian Dave Chappelle. Chappelle focused on the issues of racism and race as gendered and as a social construction throughout the show’s two full seasons. Using content analysis, my research highlights race and masculinity as a social construction within the context of “Chappelle’s Show” by focusing on specific sketches within the series that play on issues of race and gender. The overarching theme of my analysis examines the idea of comedy as resistance to dominant society, specifically to race and gender norms and thus to limited expectations and representations of black masculinity. The selected sketches exemplify how humor de-centers popular narrative and positions the world within a marginalized perspective.

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